4 ms·
It used to be that incidents like these would be reported as UFOs. I wonder if someone had advanced drone technology 50 (ish) years ago? Or are some of the cu
by smoyer 11y ago
It used to be that incidents like these would be reported as UFOs. I wonder if someone had advanced drone technology 50 (ish) years ago? Or are some of the current "sightings" UFOs but there's now a plausible explanation (drones). The most curious report is the drone with the "balloon-like center" - might this have been reported as a weather balloon in the past?
Note: I'm using the term UFO as it's original acronym and don't mean to imply they're flown by the proverbial little green men.
EDIT: I'm using the term "little green men" in the gender neutral form and am not intentionally impuning the flying capabilities of little green women.
- transman 11y agoI would suggest "green people", however, that would be speciesism, and according to another HN headline, we should probably avoid that [1]. To be very clear, as a transman, I'm particularly sensitive to gendered words. I think it's very important to take context into account. For example, I took great offense at the recent "corporate democratic whore" comment [2]. On the flip side, sometimes people can be a bit too sensitive! Personally, I really got a chuckle out of your edit! [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11515108 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11515108 [2] http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/04/14/speaker_at_sanders_rally_calls_hillary_clinton_a_corporate_democratic_whore.html http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/04/14/speaker_at...
- smoyer 11y agoI'm glad you read the EDIT with the humor that was intended ... and in regards to speciesism, I wonder how the dolphins would feel [1]. I'm from the US where we've used the male pronouns as gender neutral for a long time but I'm really getting tired of arguments over gender, arguments over race, arguments over class. I've been thinking that it would be wonderful if we could ignore our differences, accept each other and simply refer to ourselves and our species as "us". (I know we're a long way from that now, but it's Sunday so I can do some dreaming). [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11515108 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11515108
- transman 11y ago>I know we're a long way from that now, but it's Sunday so I can do some dreaming. I have that same dream regularly! I'm old enough to have seen some progress, and I look forward to seeing even more before I'm done. To that end, I think it's vital to be able to have respectful dialogue and a little humor from time to time.
- MichaelGG 11y agoIsn't "whore" gender neutral?
- DiabloD3 11y agoYes, but it is insulting to the non-whores. Its also insulting to non-people. We need a gender neutral, species neutral, personhood neutral word to describe "corporate whores".
- MikeNomad 11y agoCorpratists.
- PhasmaFelis 11y agoSort of. You might see a headline that says "CONGRESSMAN CAUGHT WITH MALE PROSTITUTE", but never "CONGRESSMAN CAUGHT WITH FEMALE PROSTITUTE"--it's one of those concepts that is understood to be female by default.
- jspiral 11y agoI'm trying to think which gender i'd guess if I read: CONGRESSWOMAN CAUGHT WITH PROSTITUTE. I honestly think i'd guess male prostitute.
- transman 11y agoI'm old enough that when I learned what "whore" meant it was only in reference to a female prostitute. "Gigolo" was the term for a male who had sex for money, but it's never had the same negative connotation as whore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution
- threeseed 11y agoNo. Hence the term "man whore" was invented as the male equivalent. Plus you can always get a good idea of how regular young people define a term: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=whore http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=whore
- tn13 11y agoLOL for that EDIT. But you should be more clear as to where you stand on transgender and those people who have non-binary gender identity. Besides by using the term little are you doubting the capacity of big people ? Besides to ensure a safe space on HN you should not use the word "green" it is offensive to some.
- VLM 11y agoI think its more interesting that UFO reports from 50 yrs ago never included drone size deployments, therefore the reports from 50 yrs ago are quite likely inaccurate, unless the visitors to Earth were somehow limited to pre-2010-ish era technology.
- ubernostrum 11y agoIt's also interesting how many of them reported exactly the same "saucer" as the original publicized sighting, despite that sighting not necessarily involving a saucer shape!
- 13of40 11y agoKind of like the mystery airships that were plaguing us at the end of the 19th century? But I think the OP was talking more about normal, mortal, earthbound humans having some garage-built technology that got classified as UFOs. Those would necessarily have to be made with the technology of the day.